I used to play with a guy that no matter what guitar he played, it hummed. I was playing nothing but Strats, and when I'd hear the hum I'd think it was me. But no, it was him.

The guy's sweat would eat through the plating on new hardware in a matter of months, and strings would get rusty after a single gig if he wasn't diligent about wiping things down. He has an oil-finished koa Carvin that has divots in the top from the acidity.

This. So much this. OP, I understand you are trying to seek a solution, but IMO, it's based on trying to placate fuckin' whiners.

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Lol, too funny boys, I agree completely! I've been tempted to bring it back to practice the last couple of times and just might do it next week! Love me that P90 sound, he's gonna have to live with it!

Of course I'll be courteous and use the volume between songs and maybe even my tuner to mute but dude, this is Rawk!!

Can be through the pots if they are grounded, but has to all be connected.

Do they make metal covers for P-90s (I've seen the dog-ear ones). If they do you could put them over the top and solder a ground wire from the covers to you pots to ground the shields.

You mention the dirty power, but make sure you have a full 3 wire outlet with ground or your going nowhere fast.

If things are as bad as you say there is always one of these.

A nice isolation transformer to put between you and the power company.

Spikes, glitches and hums get eaten up in the coils of the transformer, essentially isolating you on a separate AC circuit from the mains power.

Most have some sort of EMI filtering as well.

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So when I solder a new ground wire to the shielding, is it best to daisy chain a soldered ground wire from the pickup cavity shielding to the control cavity shielding then onto the pots or directly to the ground of the jack?

So when I solder a new ground wire to the shielding, is it best to daisy chain a soldered ground wire from the pickup cavity shielding to the control cavity shielding then onto the pots or directly to the ground of the jack?

Sorry newb questions but I want to make sure I do it right!

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Its all good! No worries!

It does not matter as electrically they are all tied together. A daisy chain of grounding works the same as a single point.

All the grounding starts at the jack lug of the guitar. from there you can run one wire in a big loop to all the pots and cavity.

That's a daisy chain.

Its usually easier than trying to run single wires back from each pot to the jack.

Have you heard the Kinman back to back with a regular P90? I'm trying to get as many opinions as I can about them and if I'll still get that raunchy P90 sound I love with the Kinman. I don't know if it's worth the change if I'm going to loose that grit

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I've already expressed my opinion above but I'll add a few things:

-IME, P90 hum is not always a problem but it can become seriously annoying in some situations. When I play on a small stage just next to my amp and with some gain, trying to convince myself that the hum is a part of the game doesn't help me to cut the mud sonically.

-I've swapped once the Kinman in my PRS with the regular bridge P90 in my Hamer: clearly, the perceived difference was coming from the guitars much more than from their pickups (hum aside).

Now, I wouldn’t promise that a Kinman will sound exactly like your beloved P90, for a simple reason: IME, there's many P90 tonal "shades". With an inductance varying sometimes of 33%, among other variable specs (Q factors, Gauss level and so on), some models are polite and clear while some others are fat and gritty, unless they bark with a nasal voice. A shoot out done by the German magazine Gitarre&Bass has clearly shown that variability a few years ago (if necessary, search the .pdf named "P90 pickups" about their "vergleich" and watch the resonant peaks reproduced in this long article: it should tell you something about the tonal variations that I mention). So, if you consider a Kinman, think twice about the best choice (there's several Kinman models with various inductances now).

All these factors being considered, I repeat that I go back and forth between regular P90’s and Kinman P90Hx without hearing the Kinman claiming “I’m a humbucker disguised in P90” (silent operation aside). Actually, I even find the Kinman more alive and harmonically richer – but as the geek that I am, I must confess that I’ve modified my Kinman in several ways and paired it with a carefully "tuned" resistive load from the wiring. So I’m not sure that my experience can be generalized to current stock models...

FWIW.

EDIT - I've got five pedalboards right now (+ various digital interfaces ). Most of them include noise gates (that I use). IME, most noise gates work well once properly set... but they don't protect the tone against "blurring" due to hum + notes when a noisy pickup is played. YMMV.

I've had problems with hum and it varied depending on venue. Worst was a club that had the stage wiring on the same circuit as the sign outside. I used an MXR Smartgate for awhile, had it set to where it would cut the noise while I wasn't playing. Currently I'm using a Fralin Hum canceling dogear P90. Love this pickup, I can plug straight into the amp and wail away with no exta noise.https://www.fralinpickups.com/product/p90-hum-cancelling/

I can't help but think someone is jealous about how well that p90 is cutting through the mix. Screw 'em. Be respectful and back her down between songs and bring midol for the band and maybe designate a safe space for them to go when drop your balls out and rip on that lpj.

U have good answers to the post query... just wanted to add, for the shielding run a wire from the neck pup cavity to the bridge pup cavity, then a wire from the Bridge pup-cavity to the conntrol cavity, and finally from the control cavity to the back of a pot, give the collected junk (static/rf) a clear path out of the guitar

More than welcome bloke, P90s are too much fun. It may not do tooo much for you right now but if you play somewhere near the wrong electrical gear youll be very glad you did it, even mobile phones, tthe P90 wasnt built with modern devices in mind

Update* Last night I did surgery on the old Junior and soldered a ground wire from each cavity shielding right to the volume pot. Plugged her in and didn't notice a single difference for the better...Argh..!! Still hums like crazy in my living room. I think I will be ordering a Kinman P90 soon, I just hope I don't loose too much of that P90 growl!..